Not just what and how, but why!
Introduction In November 2025, a jury awarded the widow and children of a Sterling, Illinois Fire Lieutenant Garrett Ramos $31.5 million in a wrongful death case stemming from a 2021 residential fire. The outcome is sobering but it should also be a wakeup call for every fire and rescue agency. This verdict reflects not only … Read more
Tucson AZ Overpressure Event Earlier this month, Chief Billy Goldfeder examined an incident involving an overpressure event that occurred in May 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. The initial response was a single company dispatched to an unknown type fire near East 22nd Street and South County Club Road. Arriving at the reported location, they observed light … Read more
Unresolvable Questions? No, this is not going to be a blog post about solid stream and fog nozzles… That argument has been ongoing since the 1800s and is quite likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Systems of Work However, there are a number of other interesting differences in perspective that are worth examining. In … Read more
Smoke Explosion Recognition and Mitigation Smoke explosions (and backdrafts) are an infrequent occurrence on the fireground. Firefighters and fire officers need to develop their situational awareness by recognizing key fire behavior indicators and reading the fire. While having a small number of fires is desirable for the community, firefighters have limited opportunities to gain the … Read more
Smoke Explosion One of the earliest descriptions of compartment fire explosions is the paper published by Steward in 1914. Steward used the term smoke explosion as a general term to distinguish between smoke gas explosions to dust explosions but did not differentiate between backdrafts and smoke explosions as fire behavior phenomenon. “… ‘smoke explosions’ frequently … Read more
Backdraft Indicators and Mitigation In the late 1970s I was blown out of a building by a backdraft during live fire training in an acquired structure (pre NFPA 1403 Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions). Fortunately, I only had minor injuries, but this ignited my passion for understanding fire behavior and developing the ability to … Read more
Backdraft Preconditions Avoiding adverse outcomes from the occurrence of backdrafts requires a sound understanding of this fire behavior phenomena and the conditions under which a backdraft may occur. Engaging with the task of distilling backdraft scientific research into an accurate, but practical explanation for operational firefighters and fire officers and sorting through backdraft indicators identified … Read more
Ventilation and Ventilation-limited Fires As discussed in the last post (Backdraft and Smoke Explosion: Part 3), with normal ventilation fires in buildings other than large open plan structures will generally become ventilation limited early in their development. In typical residential occupancies and smaller commercial occupancies, fires that have progressed significantly into the growth stage likely … Read more
Errata Thanks to Dr. Stefan Svensson for identifying an issue in Backdraft and Smoke Explosion: Part 2. The term surface combustion was taken from the 14th Edition of the Fire Protection Handbook (NFPA, 1976). I had always thought that the explanation of flaming and “surface” combustion from this text was simple and easy to understand. … Read more
Back to the Beginning Really understanding the difference between backdrafts and smoke explosions requires an understanding of several basic concepts of fire dynamics. Much of this should be a review, but there are several important connections to the phenomena of backdraft and smoke explosion. Combustion Combustion is a chemical process where a fuel reacts with … Read more